The integration of digital processing technology with imaging devices and systems has enabled more powerful and easier to use photographic products. For example, the ability to digitally control the shutter speed of an imaging device, aperture, and sensor sensitivity has provided for improved picture quality in a variety of imaging environments without the need for a photographer to manually determine and set these parameters for each environment.
In traditional photography, a camera is manipulated to focus on a certain area of an environment. After capturing an image of the environment, portions of the image are either in focus or out of focus depending on the orientation and location of the portions relative to the camera. Many areas not in focus cannot be made in focus due to the relative orientation of the area with respect to the various optical components of the camera. In existing camera systems, to bring areas that are not initially in focus into focus, the hardware elements of the camera (e.g., the lens system) must be manipulated for a new focus position. Accordingly, a user of a camera may capture multiple images of an environment, manipulating the hardware elements with each image, just to capture (in focus) a single sought after image of an environment, or of one or more objects in a certain area of a scene. It would be advantageous for use in camera systems, in terms of photographic effects, to enable a computational ability to focus on a tilted plane after the target scene is captured, and gain the flexibility that Scheimpflug tilt-shift techniques offer to photography.